A blog launched on the 41st anniversary of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), the first pro-life organisation in the world, established on 11 January 1967. SPUC has been a leader in the educational and political battle against abortion, human embryo experimentation and euthanasia since then. I write this blog in my role as SPUC's chief executive, commenting on pro-life news, reflecting on pro-life issues and promoting SPUC's work.

Sunday, 21 September 2008

Delivering them into evil

I strongly urge my visitors to read Witness to Love's superb analysis of "Lifetracks", a personal development programme supported and promoted by Connexions in schools.

As you may know from my previous posts, Connexions is a government agency which provides careers advice to young people from 13 - 19 years old and which promotes access to abortion and abortifacient birth control amongst children under the age of consent without parental knowledge or consent.

Our Witness to Love is a Catholic English teacher working in Catholic High School. His PhD thesis, completed at the University of Nottingham, was on children's reading and the moral imagination - and he has a background in Psychology, English and Education. He and Martha, his wife, have six children. As an academic, a teacher and a father, he is uniquely well-qualified to comment on "Lifetracks" as his analysis shows.

"Lifetracks", despite Witness to Love's objections, has been used for several years in his Catholic school. He describes how the programmes marginalizes the family, and how its misleading and factually inaccurate "information" strips authentic Catholic teachers and parents of their authority, promotes the idea that there are no solid norms regarding human life, human love and lifestyles, and prepares children from 13 years old for sexual activity.

Witness to Love tells us that "Worksheets for children in years 9 and 11 contain 'information' about contraceptives which fail to mention the medical risks to women of taking the pill, nor the abortifacient properties of the 'morning after pill' or certain IUDs." He tells us that the programme contains "plenty of suggestions of where to obtain an abortion through the Connexions website".

Witness to Love suspects the "Lifetracks" programme is used in many schools, including Catholic schools in the UK. Please will you check if it's being used in schools attended by your children, grandchildren, or the children of your friends, neighbours or fellow-parishioners? Please let me know - at johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk

I have said it before and I will say it again. The government's providing access to children with abortion and abortifacient birth control and preparing them for sexual activity is the worst development in Britain since the passing of the Abortion Act. And as a Catholic, I say that Catholic authorities delivering our children into evil is the worst betrayal of their sacred trust that I can imagine. We cannot rest until the Catholic Education Service has been instructed by its chairman, Archbishop Vincent Nichols, and by the Catholic bishops of England and Wales, to reverse its wicked policy of welcoming Connexions' advisers into Catholic schools in England.

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John Smeaton

About me

I became involved in SPUC after graduating, when I established a branch in south London in 1974. I have worked full-time for SPUC for 33 years. I became director of SPUC in the UK in 1996, having been general secretary since 1978. I was elected vice-president of International Right to Life Federation in 2005. At UN conferences in Cairo, Copenhagen, Beijing, Istanbul and Rome, I helped coordinate more than 150 pro-life/pro-family groups resulting in pro-life victories in Cairo, Istanbul and Rome. I was educated at Salesian College, London, before going to Oxford where I graduated in English Language and Literature. I qualified as a teacher, becoming head of English at a secondary school. I am married to Josephine. We have a grown-up family and we live in north London.

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